Reading Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief
by MelissaK919
Summary: Percy and his friends, including 3 Olympians, read the story of Percy, five years after the Titan War, beginning with the first Book. The muses decide to bestow a gift on Percy, capturing his stories for the mortals to read.
1. Chapter 1

AN: I've decided to do something different with this series, although a few writers have already done the "reading the series" and those are quite interesting. It's always been an interest of mine to read those stories, especially the Twilight Series. I've got an idea with this series though, and by the time I finish the "Reading the Series" which will include the Lost Hero set, it'll set it all up for my own fanfiction for Percy Jackson, pertaining to the time after TLH, depending on how it ends. So you'll have to stick with me for quite some time. I am also looking for a beta, I definitely need someone to go over my writing, and help me with things I might have over missed.

Thanks for reading, commenting, and following, I appreciate all the support I'm hoping to get from all of you.

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE PERCY JACKSON SERIES

Reading Percy Jackson & The Olympians Book One

The Lightning Thief

* * *

It had been five years after the war with the Titans, five years after I turned down immortality. Most would say I'm an idiot, but it all worked out in the end. No one would have suspected things would turn out how they did, after the second major prophesy in my life, but everything had a twist I don't think Rachel even saw coming. My father, Lord Poseidon, said that something amazing was in the works, something that hasn't been offered a hero in many centuries. To understand how I came to be how I am today, he said I had to look back on the life I lead, the life that made me who I am today. I wasn't sure what he was referring to, but Annabeth, my girlfriend and the daughter of Lady Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, smirked as we were called into the throne room on Olympus.

As we approached our parents, the only god and goddess in the room, we knelt before them and waited for the reason we were called before them.

"Perseus, a great honor has been bestowed upon you." Athena began. "The muses have decided to grant that your story be told, and prior to it being released for the mortal world, you are granted the chance to read it, along with those involved within the stories, of your choosing of course."

My father looked down at me then, smiling. "Child, you must be warned that in these stories are your private thoughts of that time, and the Olympians will be reading these stories along with you. You must choose where you would read them."

I looked at Annabeth in shock, unsure what to say, and knowing that I had to choose well, since the Olympians would probably be popping in and out to read with me. She always knew the best strategy, and I was hoping she would tell me now, but she just looked at me with her eyes portraying that I must choose this myself. I took a deep breath and did what most demigods did, make a rash decision, and blame it on the ADHD.

"Camp Half-Blood."

My father and Athena looked at each other, sighed, rose from their thrones and took a mortal appearance. Annabeth and I followed our godly parents out of the throne room and down into the mortal world below Olympus, and from there, Camp Half-Blood. When we arrived, the mortal way, or as mortal as you can when arriving at camp, there was an honor guard waiting at the top of the hill, by a large Christmas sized pine tree that once held the spirit of Thalia Grace. Standing at the top of the hill was Thalia, lieutenant to the Hunters of Lady Artemis and daughter of Zeus; Grover Underwood, Lord of the Wild, and one of my best friends; Conner and Travis Stoll, sons of Hermes; Nico di Angelo, son of Hades; and last Clarisse, daughter of the God of War, Ares.

Once we all did our hugs and hellos, or in Clarisse's case, glares, we headed for the big house, where we would begin our tale, and everyone would find out exactly what I thought. Oh great.

"Percy, since it is your book, I think you should read the first chapter." Annabeth said, smiling at me. Athena handed me the first book, green covered book titled The Lightning Thief.

**Chapter One: I ACCIDENTALLY VAPORIZE MY PRE-ALGEBRA TEACHER**

"Are you kidding me? Why didn't you ever tell us? That's so cool!" Travis said, before he started to laugh.

"Are you going to interrupt through the whole series?" Clarisse asked, already becoming frustrated with the son of Hermes.

"Yes, I believe so" Conner answered for his brother.

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

"Way to state the obvious punk," Clarisse stated, rolling her eyes. I could tell she was going to be just as disrupting as the Stoll brothers. I figured the best way to ignore them, is to continue reading, it was only going to get worse.

**If your reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie you mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

"Umm Percy," Grover started, looking at me as though I may be ill. "Once they think they are a half-blood, and if they really are, I don't think it will stop the monsters."

"Yeah Seaweed Brain, it'll be too late by that time." Thalia said

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

"Prissy are you telling me you're scared!" Clarisse laughed, until she realized she was being glared at by everyone in the room, including the two Olympian gods.

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think its fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before **_**they**_** sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

"Well that sounds pleasant," Nico muttered sarcastically.

"It may sound harsh, Nico, but it's true. Once we began," Annabeth began, in her best strategic voice, before she was cut off by her mother, Athena.

"As much as the commentary is interesting, can we at least complete the first page? We are never going to finish at this rate." The goddess of wisdom stated, and no one dared argue, she was right after all.

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

Travis and Conner smirked at that statement, probably waiting for all the blackmail they were going to get from this book, details they would have never known about before this.

**Yeah. You could say that.**

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan—twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

**I know—it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were.**

"Perseus Jackson, do you mean to tell me that museums are torture?" Athena asked, glaring at me.

"Umm…" I stammered, unsure how to answer her, and afraid of her reaction if I answered honestly that yes, I do believe that. Lady Athena gave me one last glare, before waving her hand and making a stack of books appear before me. I examined the top book and realized it was about stuff you might learn by going to a museum.

"Read those books, you might learn something. Now continue." Athena stated, smiling at me. The others just smirked at my misfortune.

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"Awww, you liked Chiron," Nico and Travis commented, then realized they spoke together, and started laughing. I could swear I heard Connor 'cough' suck-up, but I couldn't be positive over the laughing.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

**Boy was I wrong.**

"What amazing foreshadowing you tell, Percy." Rachel stated as she walked into the room, followed by Mr. D, the camps director and one of the Olympian gods. "I hope I didn't miss much." A word about Rachel, she's our oracle, and one of my good friends. We met a few years after the event in the book we're reading now, at the Hoover Dam, but I'm sure you'll learn all about that soon enough.

"Please, sit down. We have only begun." Poseidon said, waving his hand producing a chair for Rachel. Both sat near the hearth, Mr. D. by Athena and my father, and Rachel next to Annabeth and me.

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary war cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.**

"Cool!" Travis and Connor exclaimed.

"What were you really aiming at?" Nico asked, interested in this statement.

"I…I'm not sure." I shrugged, thinking it was probably some monster that my subconscious was telling me was a danger to me.

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that…Well, you get the idea.**

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

"That is just…" Annabeth began.

"Disgusting!" Rachel finished. "Who makes peanut butter and ketchup sandwiches not to mention eats them?"

"That has to be the most disgusting thing I've ever heard. Eww." Clarisse stated, looking downright revolted.

"Did you just say eww?" I asked her. She gave me one of her death glares, so I figured I'd better stick to reading, and not commenting.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated.**

"I'm so glad to know what you thought of me," Grover stated, looking offended.

"Well, looks like we'll get to find out what Prissy thought of all of us." Clarisse smirked, glancing at Mr. D. to point out to me that soon, he would know my thoughts on him. That wasn't going to be a pretty sight. I took a big sigh before continuing to read the chapter. The sooner I got this over with, the better.

**He must have been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

"Grover Underwood," Poseidon started, glaring at the satyr, earning a few whimpers from my friend and causing the rest of us to sink lower in our seats. "You need to learn how to hide your cover better! That is no way to act when you're undercover. Anyone could have found you out! Once I think of a punishment for your thoughtlessness, I'll let you know."

"Y…yes sir, Lord Poseidon." Grover stammered, chewing on his shirt sleeve. He does that when he's nervous.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

"**I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

"Yes! Do it!" Nico stated, enjoying the thought of me killing a bully. All the half-bloods in the room were nodding their heads, but for different reasons. We all had problems with bullies when we were in school, and none of us liked them very much.

"No killing mortals!" Rachel commented, which only earned her glares from the other half-bloods, and snickers from the immortals.

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

"**That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

"**You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

"You should have done it!" Travis said, laughing. "That would have been priceless, the look on her face!"

"I doubt Percy would hit a girl." Annabeth looked at me, hoping I'd agree with her, but I only glanced at the fire that was warming the room from the hearth. I knew she was glaring at me, but I chose at that moment to continue reading.

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"Well, someone learned something," Clarisse began, but stopped when she noticed a pile of her own books sitting in front of her.

"Perhaps you too may learn something, daughter of Ares." Athena said, before waving at me to continue.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a **_**stele**_**, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

"I wonder what that overgrown bat did to your first teacher," Thalia whispered to me, earning a glare from Nico and Annabeth. "What? I think it's something that should be looked into, what if she tried to eat the poor mortal." At that comment the Stoll brothers couldn't help but snicker, probably picturing the Kindly Ones eating mortals, as I was now.

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

Nico couldn't help but laugh, muttering "She _really_ doesn't like you."

"Percy, do you have to get on the bad side of every immortal you come across?" Travis asked, in a very serious tone, as though this was the most important topic at hand.

"Well, I'm just talented at that." I couldn't help but smile at the looks of absolute horror on my friends faces. Let's hope they don't believe I would make any god mad on purpose.

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

Thunder started outside the farmhouse, and it must have been close because it seemed to shake the room we were in.

"I don't think the Lord of the Sky appreciates you're unbelievable ability to completely ruin your cover." Athena stated coldly, glaring at Grover, now cowering as far under his chair as he can go.

"Why didn't you just bring him to camp right then?" Thalia said while looking over her shoulder, watching for her hunters by the looks of it.

Grover just shrugged, "He wasn't ready then."

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you just **_**shut up?"**_

"That was nice of you," Thalia stated

"I thought so, too." I laughed

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

"**Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

"**Yes." Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because…"**

"Well of course I wasn't satisfied; I knew you could do better." Chiron commented

"**Well…" I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and—" **

"GOD?" Several people exclaimed, and I was receiving glares from everyone. To avoid their glares I looked at my stack of books which I had received as punishment and saw three more appear on top. One from each god in the room.

"I didn't really believe in gods and mystical stuff at that time, remember?" All of the demigods in the room looked at me in amazement, before Clarisse rolled her eyes and muttered "Idiot."

"**God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

"**Titan," I corrected myself. "And…he didn't trust his kids, who where the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right?** **But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**

"**Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

"—**and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continues, "and the gods won."**

**Some snickers from the group.**

"Why were they laughing," Nico asked confused, "You got it right."

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

"**And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss. Bobofit's excellent question, dos this matter in real life?"**

"Busted!" Travis cheered. I couldn't help but snicker myself when I read the next line, thinking that Travis and Grover thought alike, not sure either would like that comparison.

"**Busted," Grover muttered.**

The demigods in the room started smirking at this, most likely thinking along the same lines as I did moments ago.

"**Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

"**I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lean us back outside?"**

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other and acting like doofuses. **

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**  
**I knew that was coming.**  
**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything."**

"Actually his eyes are a lot older than a thousand years, and has seen a lot, but not everything." Annabeth stated matter-of-factly. Athena just smiled in her daughters direction, not exactly liking the interruption but pleased that at the very least, her interruptions were intelligent.

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**  
**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**  
**"Oh."**  
**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

"Well, Percy," Rachel began. "He is the trainer of heroes, and at that time, he was your teacher. What else did you expect from him?"

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C— in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

All the demigods in the room seemed thoughtful at this, because we were all dyslexic, so it was hard to read English. It seemed Annabeth had even had difficulties in school, since they don't have lessons in Ancient Greek, so makes going to normal school difficult.

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

"I believe he was," Poseidon sighed.

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

"Seems you were very persistent," Poseidon smirked, "to have noticed your uncle and me fighting."

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers.**

"The pigeons really didn't like that," Grover began to pout upon this part, he really hated when anyone disrespected the Wild.

**Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse,** **and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

"I hate to say it, but this Nancy might have easily fit in with Hermes." Connor muttered to Travis, who looked like he agreed.

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

"Did it work?" Rachel seemed really curious about that.

"Nope," Grover laughed. "I'm pretty sure everyone knew we were a part of that group."

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

"Finally!" Annabeth seemed pleased with herself.

"What?" My face must have shown shock or bewilderment, because she started laughing.

"You said you're not a genius, only sometimes you act like you are, when you get all high and mighty." The others laughed when Annabeth said that, trying not to laugh herself.

"I don't get high and mighty."

"Actually," Nico started, "you really do. After a battle, you get like, bold. Like you can't do any wrong."

"You should have seen yourself on the bridge, in the war," Travis smirked. "Taking on the whole army, you just walked in, 'Oh, I'm Percy Jackson, you can't beat me.'" The others tried to hide their smirks, even my father, and I could feel my face heating up from the shock and, well, embarrassment.

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

'Sorry' I heard Grover speak in my mind. Our telepathy link had become stronger over the years, making it easier to communicate, especially when we were in close proximity. 'It's ok G-Man' I thought to him.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

Annabeth squeezed my hand, knowing that the topic of my mother was going to be difficult in this book, and I was grateful to have her next to me, and my mother safely at home with Phil.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

"AWESOME!" Nico shouted, a look of complete rapture on his face. I couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking about, and I was scared for a moment that he and the Stoll brothers were using these books to come up with plots of their own.

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

"Th….that," Annabeth stuttered, unable to control her temper. "That snotty, no good…."

Thalia took that moment to cover Annabeth's mouth with her hand, stopping her from saying anything that might get her into trouble, but I'm not sure how much she actually would get into.

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

"Oh my gods," Rachel laughed. "You have the best descriptions Percy!"

**I tried to stay cool.**

**The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

"I bet she was just waiting for something like that," Grover commented. "Waiting to see if you were the one she was looking for."

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

**"—the water—"**

**"—like it grabbed her—"**

**I didn't know what they were talking about.**

**All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"**

**I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

"I don't think that was the right thing to say." Thalia glared at me.

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

"I guess you and Percy think alike," Travis laughed, looking at Thalia. She took that moment to shock him with lightning. "Oh crap, that hurt." He frowned, feeling his hair standing on end.

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

"Thanks for trying G-Man." I looked at my best friend, knowing he was terrified of the Kindly Ones.

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But—"**

**"You—will—stay—here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare.**

"Yeah, I doubt that scared her," Thalia muttered

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop. But apparently that wasn't the plan. I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman for us, the gallery was empty. Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing.**

**I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil. She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room.**

**Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

Another book appeared on my stack, Tom Sawyer. Athena glanced at me, daring me to argue.

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**  
**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air. Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes. My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword. She snarled, "Die, honey!" And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword. The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water.**

**Hisss!**

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**  
**I was alone.**  
**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**  
**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

"Ah yes," Athena smirked. "The mist does its job again."

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

The Stoll brothers started laughing at this, and Conner looked at me, "You can't be serious. Magic mushrooms would have made you paranoid." I wasn't sure how he would know, but decided it better not to ask.

**Had I imagined the whole thing? I went back outside. It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

**I said, "Who?"**

**"Our teacher. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about. She just rolled her eyes and turned away. I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

"That really annoyed me man," I stared angrily at Grover.

"Sorry, but I had to keep you safe," Grover became interested in his pipes. "Besides, I thought the mist would work on you, too."

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious." Thunder boomed overhead. I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved. I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

"That would have been awesome to see your face Prissy!" Clarisse laughed, along with everyone else.

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**"The other chaperon. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

Everyone took in their surroundings, and I could tell that they were trying not to laugh.

"Were you feeling alright, Prissy?" Clarisse mocked.

"Alright, none of that," Athena began. "I'm sure we could sit here and debate this chapter in great detail—"

Everyone began to groan about that suggestion.

"—but I think it would be wiser to continue on with the next chapter. Perhaps Mr. D. will do the honors of reading the next chapter?"

We all stared and the camp director with shock, doubting he would take the suggestion, but cautious all the same. The immortal gods tended to do the unexpected.

* * *

AN: That's it for the first chapter, I should update in a few days. Let me know what you all think :D


	2. Chapter 2

I am so sorry to all of the people that are following my story, and although I'd rather not do AN's it is a must right now. The second chapter will be up within the week, and updates closer together, but work has been unbelievable. I appreciate your patience. xoxo


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **There were so many alerts, and favorites with the chapter only being up a short time! This made me very happy, enough to post another chapter! But for a few notes:

xXxrouxXx: Thank you! I appreciate your comment, I've went and corrected my mistakes, I'm sure writing at 2am was the problem :D And I'm actually writing it all up myself, even the original story. I simply love it, and by doing this, I'm not just writing my own areas to the story, but reading the original as well this way.

Sarah: Thank you for commenting, it helps knowing people like it to continue fully. And thx for pointing out the Paul/Phil mix, not sure what I was thinking, although it may have to do with the Twilight story I'm writing as well as this one!

ChavyJazzy: LOL I am very glad you love it! You definitely put a smile on my face when I read your comment

speedyteeny: Thank you! I've been writing for many years, this being the very first to allow anyone to see. I will definitely finish the story, as once the entire series is complete, I have my own Fanfiction to post for Percy, which will continue from where the books ended.

lmb111514: Thank you!

Chris67: LOL thank you!

TheIceCubeCancer: Thanks! I got a lot of inspiration and since I simply love the series, I couldn't help but write this, I'm so glad you like it.

Kittykatkitkat: lol I'm sorry it took so long, but here it is for you!

**Harry Potter****101: Well, there were a total of three Gods/Goddess so far, Athena, Poseidon and Mr. D. He is ****Dionysus was the Greek God of Wine. He was punished by Lord Zeus and made to spend his time, (can't remember the exact time) at Half-Blood Hill to help the demigods and be more helpful. The other god in the room, at the time of my story, is a secret **** and I will post a chapter of my continuation which will reveal that info if 15 people ask me! But otherwise, you will have to wait for me to finish this series to release my addition.**

Again, thank you to everyone who reviewed, added me as a favorite author or my story as a favorite! I never expected as much support with only one story, but all of you are amazing!

I've been thinking of having the gods be more active in the coming chapters, making this story VERY different from other writers. They tend to stick to one set of people reading, and I will do that with the demigods, but gods can be anywhere, see anything, so they wouldn't miss much popping in and out. Plus I think it would add to the dynamics of my story if there was more chance for confrontation and I have a feeling a few different gods would do that perfectly Let me know what you all think.

Also I'm so sorry for the delay in posting this chapter, it's been a hectic few days, and I can't seem to find my copy of the book, since I type out the chapters myself, so it's taken a bit longer for me to transcribe the chapter, but I've done the third as well, so I'll post that shortly as a bonus for making you all wait! Without further words from me, CHAPTER 2!

**THREE OLD LADIES KNIT THE SOCKS OF DEATH**

Mr. D. took the book from me and began reading quickly, hoping to get this over with.

"Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death," He read. I shivered, remembering seeing the old ladies and remembering how for a time, I thought they were after him.

"Seriously?" Thalia asked, glaring at me from her spot in the room. "You have no imagination, these titles are so stupid."

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly.**

**This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

"I can't believe it took you so long to question what was going on" Thalia muttered to Percy. "You can be so slow sometimes, Seaweed brain."

"I figured it out eventually," I replied sullenly, probably due to the nickname normally reserved for my girlfriend.

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

Everyone chuckled at that.

**It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

"Really?" Grover asked looking at me with hope in his eyes.

**Almost.**

**But Grover couldn't fool me.**

"You really need to work on your acting skills, goat-boy," Thalia said with a smirk.

"And again with the poorly undercover work," Poseidon stated, shaking his head. "Grover Underwood, I have thought of your punishment." Grover turned three shades redder than what he was. "As punishment for you lack of keeping cover in important situations, you are to assist me in the Cyclops caves inspecting the weapons my sons have produced." Grover began shaking in fear, even after all we had been through, he hated underground places.

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, and then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

**Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.**

"Like you almost getting killed by a Fur..." Clarisse started.

"Kindly One," Rachel interrupted her.

"Whatever"

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

Nico laughed at that. "I know what you mean."

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

"So I take it that the Gods have started fighting amongst each other," Travis said.

"I think we learned that in the last chapter." Thalia chuckled.

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.**

"I never understood how people could have gotten bad grades like that," Rachel commented.

"Well, when you can't read without the words floating off the page, it's pretty easy to do!" Connor replied. Rachel contemplated what he said, and after a moment nodded like she understood.

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

"It means..." Annabeth started but trailed off after receiving a glare from me and her mother.

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

My eyes narrowed at this part in the chapter... along with Poseidon's.

**And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods outside my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend,**

"Thanks, Percy," Grover said, with a smile on his face.

**even if he was a little strange.**

The room started snickering, while the smile quickly dropped from Grovers' face.

**I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

"I wouldn't be there next year." Grover stated, glaring at me, still annoyed with the last comment.

"How was I supposed to know that?"

**I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

"Aww that is so cute!" Travis laughed. "You were going to miss Chiron."

"Must you children keep interrupting?" Mr. D. glared at each of us in turn, "I'm never going to get this stupid chapter done with if you don't be quiet and let me read. I have better things to do with my time." Mr. D.'s eye's flashed with shades of purple, it was easy to tell he was getting frustrated. I gulped, and slumped down in my chair, as I'm sure the others were doing as well.

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.**

**I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

"Well, at least something go through your thick skull at that point, Mr. Jackson." Athena stated, smirking at me. I glanced at my growing pile of books, just to make sure no more were added. I get the feeling I'll end up with enough books to fill a library before these books are complete.

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon,**

"It's not that difficult Percy." Annabeth muttered under her breath, not wanting to make her point too loud in the chance it would anger the camp director again.

**or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

Travis and Conner smirked at each other, probably remembering a time where they did in fact put ants in someone's clothing. With them, I wouldn't doubt it.

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

Half the room erupted into fits of laughter. In all the noise I caught someone saying they never thought of me as the type to ask a teacher for help. I wasn't sure where it came from, but even louder I heard Clarisse and Connor mutter teacher's pet. This was going to take forever to read.

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said,**

"This should be interesting," Rachel said. "I was wondering how you figured it all out."

**"... worried about Percy, sir."**

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper,**

"Oh please!" Nico started. "Do I have to remind you about eavesdropping on the hunters?"

"When was this?" Thalia threw at me. I chose to look at my shoes, rather than answer her. They would all find out eventually.

**but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"He's got a point there." Clarisse said

"Did you just agree with Percy?" Nico asked, clearly in shock.

"No."

**I inched closer.**

**"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too—"**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice dead line— "**

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

**"Sir, he saw her... ."**

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

"Hardly," I muttered, glaring at Grover. I was becoming annoyed with him at this point, remembering how he tried to confuse me into believing the mist.

**"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"**

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"That was a smart thing to do," Clarisse said sarcastically. The demi-gods in the room nodded their heads, agreeing with her.

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

"That would have been clue number 4!" Nico stated laughing. I was confused as to what they were talking about, until Travis pulled out a large board and started writing on it. Clarisse looked at what they were writing and started laughing. I glanced over Nico's shoulder and saw that they were making a checklist of all the clues that pointed to me being a half-blood, the clues that I ignored.

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, and then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

"That's the worst part of going to school undercover." Grover said between shivers. "I hate tests."

A stack of books appeared at Grovers feet, causing him to fall out of his chair, and causing the rest of us to stifle our laughter.

"I will expect you to study these books when we are finished here, I will test you on the knowledge in them after you have finished." Lady Athena said, in a menacing tone. I'm grateful I didn't have to be tested on my books.

**"Don't remind me."**

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just... tired."**

"Honestly, I knew. I just didn't know the reason you were so upset and confused." Grover said looking at me with sad eyes. "I thought it may have been having to leave the school."

"It's ok G-man."

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

"That's just ridicules Percy." Said Annabeth glaring at me.

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,**

"THREE HOURS!" All of the half-bloods in room yelled at once. The immortals just smirked at their outburst.

**my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."**

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

"I don't think he's explaining himself very well," Thalia chuckled.

**My eyes stung.**

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"**

"He's not doing a very good job." Nico muttered to me.

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

**"Percy—"**

**But I was already gone.**

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"I wouldn't say your family is nobodies." Travis laughed, looking at Poseidon.

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

"That really wasn't cool, Prissy." Clarisse commented.

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had,**

"That's some random luck." Connor smirked, laughing at Grover, who started blushing.

**so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen.**

**Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

"It's harder to smell monsters in open like that." Grover responded matter-of-factly.

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

"You nearly gave me a heart attack Percy!" Grover reprimanded me, but was finding it difficult with the Stoll brothers and Nico laughing at my straight forth question.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

"All of it." I answered honestly.

**"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"**

**"Grover—"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."**

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

"You do need to work on that Mr. Underwood." Athena glared.

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

"Why are your cards like that if you're going to give them to demigods?" Travis asked.

"I'm not sure, Mr. D. gave me the cards." Grover answered honestly. Mr. D. started looking at everything in the room but at the half-bloods in the room as they glared at him.

"Figures," Nico stated.

**Grover Underwood**

**Keeper**

**Half-Blood Hill**

**Long Island, New York**

**(800) 009-0009**

**"What's Half—"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

"There is nothing wrong with being rich." Connor laughed, and I couldn't help thinking of Rachel and agreeing with him.

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or...or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

"You probably hurt Grovers feelings," Clarisse stated, trying to hold in her laughter.

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.**

"You lost sleep over me, Percy?" Grover asked, looking at me. I couldn't answer, so I just slumped into my chair.

**"Grover," I said, "What exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs.**

**The driver cursed and steered the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

"I bet something is about to happen," Travis tried to predict, glancing at Connor. He didn't know how right he is.

**We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

"That was no normal fruit stand." Grover admitted, shivering.

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

"The fates!" Annabeth said, shocked. "You ran into the fates, they never just appear to someone!"

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

"That's not good Percy!" Annabeth said, still in shock, and now worry. I grasped her hand and squeezed to allow her some form of comfort.

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

"At least he knows when there's something wrong! The fates aren't those who your able to cross and live long after!" Annabeth shrieked.

"Calm down!" Nico said, exasperated. "He's sitting next to you, he's fine. Calm yourself woman!"

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"Great time to make a joke Percy," Grover stated looking at me again.

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

"No it really wasn't." Nico laughed.

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

All of the demigods in the room did the same, except Nico. He knew what it really meant, seeing as his father is Lord Hades, Lord of the Underworld.

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

"You really shouldn't have stuck around!" Annabeth shouted. "Have you completely lost your mind?"

"Annabeth," I began, looking for the best and easiest way to say this. "You're talking to a book, everything in its already happened. She pulled her hand away from mine and crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at me.

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic.**

"That's just.." Connor began.

"Creepy," Travis finished.

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

"I wonder if that's what people feel like after a run in with the fates?" Travis questioned.

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

"Nope!" Nico laughed. "The fates are much worse."

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

The room went silent, everyone glancing at me. I'm starting to think that Mr. D. was allowing us to comment so much, and pausing so much, just to torture me. Glancing at him, I couldn't help but think that this reasoning is correct, and although he tried to mask it, the shaking of his shoulders told me that he was trying not to laugh at my expense. Typical.

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older.**

"You really do see more than you should." Grover muttered.

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

**"What last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

Annabeth rose from her chair and gave both Grover and Thalia, who had been unusually quiet this chapter, a big hug. They both seemed to relax a bit at her embrace.

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

"That's one promise that didn't last very long." Grover stated, going back to his moody self, glaring at me.

"Sorry, but you really had freaked me out." I replied, trying to calm him down at least a little bit.

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"Well," Mr. D. began. "That was educational." He finished sarcastically. I couldn't help but agree.

"That's the end?" Thalia asked. When Mr. D. tossed her the book, she took that as her answer. "That was the most idiotic thing you could ever do Percy."

"Well, if you remember, I didn't know all of this was real." I defended.

"So if you are on your way home," Clarisse started. "Does that mean that the rest of us come into play soon?"

"Yes?" I answered, not exactly remembering what happened next, except losing my mom, even if it was only for a short time. It was unusually quiet in the room, as everyone remembered how I arrived at camp.

"Shall we continue then?" Nico questioned, trying to loosen the tension in the room.

"Yes, please continue. Mr. Underwood and I will return shortly." Poseidon stated. He nodded to Thalia to continue with the next chapter, and rose from his seat next to Athena and motioned for Grover to go ahead of him. Grover rose from his chair, shaking in fear, and exited the room, followed by my father.


End file.
